A survey was conducted with 166 undergraduate students enrolled in teacher education and developmental reading classes to determine student background knowledge in three major areas: study and coping skills; current events, geography, and history; and general vocabulary. Among the findings were the following: (1) Students in both groups spent more time reading than watching television; however, they selected television over newspapers as their primary source for learning about news events. (2) Both groups reported that pictures and graphs were types of visual aids most commonly used in their textbooks. (3) While students in both groups could identify types of visual aids used in their textbooks, the students in the developmental reading group had less accuracy and memory for various types of visual aids. (4) Students in both groups indicated the use of rereading; relating the known to the unknown, or personalizing the information; paraphrasing; and visualizing as the most helpful strategies to "make sense" out of their reading; and (5) Students in the teacher education group were more knowledgeable in the areas of history, geography, and current events. (Appended are responses for selected questions from the general reading habits section and current events section of the survey.) (HOD)